On the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, you might be lucky to find a black flamingo. Normal flamingoes are born white and grey, and turn their iconic shade of pinky orange around the age of two, as a result of the high carotenoid content of the algae and crustaceans that they eat.

Experts believe that this individual (and potentially the other bird spotted in Israel) has a genetic condition that causes it to overproduce melanin, changing its feathers to black.

Thanks to a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea, we now know what 170-year-old champagne (kept in near perfect aging conditions) tastes like! Tasters described the aroma of the champagne - likely the oldest ever imbibed - as spicy, smoky, and leathery.

At 9% alcohol by volume, it was significantly less alcoholic than the modern version, which contains about 12% alcohol, likely due to a less efficient fermentation process. The researchers also found traces of chemicals from wood, suggesting that the champagne was fermented in barrels.

Source: http://news.sciencemag.org/chemistry/2015/04/what-does-170-year-old-champagne-taste?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=facebook ...

Before I begin telling you about this fascinating new glue (adhesive), there's a thing or two you need to know about the animal that inspired it all, the gecko. Geckos are small lizards that have the ability to run up walls and scurry across ceilings with the help of tiny rows of hairs on their feet known as setae. Setae generate a multitude of weak attractions (called Van der Waals forces) between molecules on the two surfaces that add up to a secure foothold. Unlike glue or tape, a gecko’s sticky feet attach and detach effortlessly, which made it a perfect case study for engineers to model.

To create their artificial gecko adhesive, a Stanford team of scientists started by making silicone micro-wedges, which imitated gecko hair. They asse ...

The United States has two kinds of physicians, the Doctor of Medicine (MD) and the Doctor of Osteopathy (DO). Both use medicines, surgery, and other standard methods of treating disease. DOs, however, place special emphasis on problems involving the musculoskeletal system, which includes muscles, ligaments, bones, and joints. Nevertheless, both doctors receive virtually identical training, and are equally licensed in all 50 states.

Osteopathic medicine holds that true health involves complete physical, mental, and social well-being, rather than merely the absence of disease. In this system, the body has a capacity for health that the physician helps the individual attain. The osteopathic physician, therefore, treats the whole patient, consid ...

Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors are a remarkable class of drugs for treating hypertension – high blood pressure. These drugs work by interfering with the enzymes that convert an inactive chemical known as angiotensin I to an active form, angiotensin II. Angiotensin II increases the retention of salt and water in the body, raising blood pressure. ACE inhibitors interfere with, or inhibit, the formation of angiotensin II, resulting in relaxed arterial walls and lowered blood pressure.

Since the release of the first ACE inhibitor in the 1980s, known generically as captopril, there are now several different ACE inhibitors available on the market. Many of them are also available in combination with other types of hypertension medic ...

Take a good look at this if your stomach didn't already turn: this photo is a mother centipede protecting her young.

The creatures appears to be an Amazonian giant centipede (Scolopendra gigantean), which is the largest existing species of centipede in the world, reaching over 30 cm (12 in) in length. It is known to eat lizards, frogs, birds, mice, and even bats, catching them in midflight, as well as rodents and spiders.

Sorry, in advance, if it gives you nightmares ...

An archaeologists is a scientist who studies human history by discovering and examining human remains and artifacts. The most common image of an archaeologists is someone on their hand and knees digging through dirt, carefully using a brush to dust off an artifact from the distant past. A geneticist, on the other hand, is someone who specializes in the science of genetics. This field of biology deals with the pattern of inheritance, molecular structure and function of genes, and gene behavior in context of a cell or organism. Both professionals are highly skilled, and use the same basic principles of science to test hypotheses, gather data, and make conclusions. However, why do archaeologists and geneticists sometimes reach different conclu ...